Have you met these types before?

Post Reply New Topic

Yeah I like the odd neurotypicals like the ones I'm friends with who literally refer to themselves (& me playfully) as the good version of insane . (Reasons why would take awhile to list...)

Still waters run deep. Not always the case of course...but unless you're a mind-reader, you'll likely never know when it comes to your plumber friend.

Even if he isn't "smart" in terms of anything you view as "smart"
and he's actually silent because he simply doesn't comprehend
whatever you're talking about, i'd again say he's smart in his own
fashion.

Nor does that mean he doesn't have the ultimate intellectual
capacity to grasp whatever you're talking to him about. Maybe
he's never been exposed to the subject material before in his
life and in that respect, he's simply "uneducated" rather than
"stupid".

I'm positive countless people I know that you'd define as
very"smart" would appear totally idiotic when trying to fix
a toliet.



Maybe not.....and in that case.....maybe he doesn't know anything about
either disorder aside from the fact that they're scary-sounding things
which originate in the brain and which most people don't *have*. To me,
he just sounds like a fairly typical "working man" who doesn't care to bother
his brain over things outside his own microcosm. Just because he doesn't
care to doesn't necessarily mean he couldn't....he just may not care to.

There's many people gifted at various things who simply never
choose to apply those gifts.

My ex-girlfriend is a prime example:

She was in AP calculus in high school, but hardly because
she had a passion for math. She was GIFTED at it, but her
demanding family pretty much force-fed math upon her,
so to speak. But all the "force-feeding" in the world wouldn't
get her into AP calculus if she lacked some innate ability for
it.


And if you think she's an astrophysicist today....think again.


She dropped out of high school, ran away at 17 and didn't
even get her GED until she was 26. Now she's working in
the "adult industry" (though what she does is legal if not
"respectable" by many people's standards) and she makes
a good deal of money doing it. She has no desire to get
anything beyond a GED and she won't even read book if
you paid her.

If you ever talked to her for a few hours, you'd probably think she's
complete moron. She knows nothing about anything...not even calculus
anymore. She just doesn't care to bother her brain too much....she just
likes to enjoy her life in the manner she sees fit and I think that's OK.
She doesn't bother anybody, she takes good care of herself, her pets,
her friends, etc....

Sorry a bit off topic but do you think my Dyslexic friend is probably a deep thinker like me which is why we can make a better connection? Sure he can be grumpy somtimes because of the fustration of having dyslexia, infact thats probably why we can relate to one another so easily because we both have difficulties. My ADHD friend as well has some issues related to his condition which again is why we can get along. My other two friends are disorder free and thats why I have less in common with them.

I really like that Chomsky quote.

Yes...and IMO...the "secular priesthood intellectuals" he's referring to
aren't just the political scientists like Henry Kissinger and the
economists like Milton Friedman.


They are also the psychologists and i'm sure Chomsky would
agree. Those same group of omniscient "intellectuals" who
thought 75% of people with autism were mentally ret*d
up until a few years ago. The same "intellectuals" who believed
homosexuality was a mental disorder 40 years ago. The same
"intellectuals" who to this day make stupid and unfounded
assumptions about human memory.

Horus, I disagree. Intellectuals are still a lot smarter than e.g., plumbers or auto-mechanics. The latter use their intelligence in a rather static way. The former are much more fluid at what they do, and usually do pioneering work. Both have acquired a skill set, but the skill set of intellectuals is way more g-loaded. And the search space for possible solutions to problems is far wider. While being able to fix a toilet is a useful skill to have, there are only so many options available that I’m willing to bet that plumbers were taught practically everything they needed to know to get the job done. Not much intelligence involved in such a job. Intellectuals have to deal with problems that are sometimes very ill-defined, vague, not even wrong, etc.

Have you ever really watched good plumbers at work? They have to bring problem solving skills to bear that would make a philosopher go faint. Since I am interested, they always explain what they've done in my house and walk me through the steps. Sometimes the fixes are inside the box, fast and simple. Sometimes there is considerable jury-rigging involved. There are plumbers who are frozen into what they learned in school and who aren't able to think through a wide range of solutions. But these are the bad plumbers that people warn each other about on web sites. A good plumber has to be smart. A bad plumber, not so much. But what you descrivbed are bad plumbers, not plumbers in general.

Ive worked in a few high rises and a 55 story once , and there are many dynamic opportunities there, and many challenges for everyone.There is a lot of math involved , there is a lot of thinking outside of the box .There is nothing static about a plumber or electrician or a an HVAC tech. There is nothing static about auto mechanics or anything that is blue collar.
Ive seen architects who prance around as gods on the job, but dont have the faintest idea about the job outside of the blueprints, and nobody wants them around.

Mr DiamondMind , name that cognitive bias

Ms me Fix-it topic

I really like fixing things. I call it problem solving, creativity, and admire people who can make a living at it, like crafters, artisans, and other hands-on types. I like the abstract disciplines as well. The world needs both, and very few can manage the two in the same brain. This would be my goal.

My dyselxic friend is an aircraft maintanence engineer and I have heard people describe him as thick. I myself think he is intelligent even though he can be wrong about things a lot. Even if its a practical job it still requires intelligence, I bet Bill Gates would find it impossible to be an aircraft engineer.

In fact my dyslexic freinds job requires so much focus and concentration that if he get someting wrong and causes the plane to crash he will get 80 years in prision. I am a bit confused as to why he is an aircraft maintanance engineer becasue you have to be good at maths, yet 4 years ago when he was at school with me he was in the bottom maths group that I was in.

Well, obviously. A good anything has to be smart. Figuring out what is the ratio of dumb plumbers to smart plumbers would be a way to solve this issue. And apply that to intellectuals as well. Let’s say a dumb intellectual is an intellectual who can’t draw any important inferences from his/her spectrum of disciplinary knowledge. I’m willing to bet there are only a few of those, if any.

Maybe not literally static, but still not very g-loaded.

Wow, I’m slightly famous; this isn’t even the same forum section. I guess the most obvious one for everyone here would be confirmation bias. Though the ones most here seem to be exhibiting are herd instinct and framing. I’m not one of them. Sure, I may be subject to them in some fashion as well, but not to the point where they have a strong affect on my accuracy.

Last edited by MrDiamondMind on 20 May 2010, 9:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I've met those types, in high school. I've avoided those types, in high school. I'm sure that they've all matured and developed their own personalities, since high school.